Octuplets

I read an article on MSN about the new octuplets in CA the other day and watched some video clips from the Today Show. One thing that has, of course, come up is the talk of the risks of having that many babies at once. Apparently the whole thing has raised eyebrows in the fertility community. One woman was even quoted at saying that it gave her the heebie jeebies and that "there's some degree of inappropriate medical therapy there,".

When they first found out how many babies had taken hold they talked with the mother (somehow there doesn't seem to be any mention of the father) about selectively aborting some of them so there wouldn't be as many. The mother chose not to do that. As the grandmother pointed out, that would have been a very painful thing. It also came out that she has 6 older children, including another set of twins. Which raised more eyebrows.

One thing I liked about the article I read is while it talked about the risks of having so many babies at once, it did point out that how many babies a woman has is her choice. Some of my favorite parts:

Dr. James Grifo, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the NYU School of Medicine, added: "I don't think it's our job to tell them how many babies they're allowed to have. I am not a policeman for reproduction in the United States. My role is to educate patients." Asked by a reporter whether medical ethics may have been breached and whether fertility assistance was provided to a mother who already had multiple children, Henry replied: "That's still a private, personal question."

"Our patient was counseled regarding her options for pregnancy. The options were to continue the pregnancy or selectively abort. The patient chose to continue the pregnancy," Henry said. "Our goal is to provide the best possible care for our patients, no matter what the situation or circumstances."

Doctors say they advise against higher-order births, but acknowledge the decision is not theirs to make.

"Who am I to say that six is the limit?" said Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg, medical director of Fertility Institutes, which has clinics in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York City. "There are people who like to have big families."

So many times in our society, people talk about a woman's right to choose but somehow it seems to only apply to her choice not to have children. I was surprised and pleased that this article pointed out that women can also choose to have children.